Racism has a long history we must all understand
Non-Indigenous Australia may not see why calling Adam Goodes an 'ape' is a racist slur, but it is important that we all understand the offence stems from a long history of racial discrimination.
Yesterday a close acquaintance asked me why calling Adam Goodes an 'ape' was a racist slur. He is a highly educated person, and he is not the only person who asked me this. The fact that so many people do not understand raises several other questions, and it is important that we as Australians have an open discussion.
The reason why calling an Aboriginal person an 'ape' constitutes racial vilification has long historical roots. When Europeans began exploring Africa in the mid-1400s, they developed justifications for European superiority over other races.
Early on was the concept of the Great Chain of Being, which was a theological hierarchical explanation for all of existence. God was on top, angels and demons next, then humans (men above women), then animals, plants and finally minerals. European scholars asserted that non-white people were lower on the Great Chain of Being, sitting somewhere between humans and animals.
When European explorers and settlers encountered Aboriginal people from the 1600s-1800s, they often said that Aboriginal people were not humans but were actually animals - like apes or monkeys. Such ideas justified not only European superiority, but also massacres, other forms of abuse and stealing the land.
The year 1859 brought us Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. From the late 1800s, scientists and then anthropologists argued that Aboriginal people were a missing link in evolution - a step between monkeys and humans - and many argued that Aboriginal people were scientifically closer to apes than humans. From the late 1800s these ideas morphed into Social Darwinism and the belief that Aboriginal people were a dying race.
The 1930s ushered in concerns about the rise of Aboriginal people of mixed descent, ideas of blood quanta, the notion of biologically absorbing Aboriginal people, and of course the Stolen Generations. You get the picture. Much of the "race science" popular in Australia was similar to what Adolf Hitler was espousing in Nazi Germany.
So what does this mean? It means that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a long history of being compared to apes. That is why Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people do not like being called apes and it is a racist slur.
This is not just about Indigenous people. Remember in 2008 when Andrew Symonds was offended because the visiting Indian cricket team called him a monkey? Such ideas have impacted on all non-European peoples around the world.
But let's return to the specific incident involving Adam Goodes at the footy. Let's give the girl benefit of the doubt that she did not know that calling an Aboriginal person an ape was racist. Why was she never taught that? Sadly I am not surprised, given that most of the students I meet in first year at university have not learned this history. This raises another question: why did nobody else in the crowd intervene? This links to the big question: why did it take Adam Goodes to be the one to stand up to this behaviour? Why must the burden fall on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and other racial minorities to challenge vilification?
Adam Goodes has handled this with so much dignity - I am amazed that any human being could be so upstanding through all the media furore. He has been compassionate, forgiving and tried to turn this into a learning opportunity. Goodes has accepted the girl's apology and he has posed the wider questions that I just listed. Even if she did not realise that what she said was racist, it still hurt Adam Goodes, and that is a point that needs to be remembered. It is easy for us non-Indigenous people to say 'oh but she didn't mean it so let it go'. Why not ask Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people how it feels?
Adam Goodes has had to live with racism his entire life, just like other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and other racial minorities (now Afro-Brazilian Harry O'Brien is speaking publicly about it). They are the ones who have to deal with it, and clearly it hurts. It is the year 2013 and it is about time that we say that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people - as well as all other racial and ethnic groups - have the right not to have to cop racial vilification because someone was ignorant. But let us take that ignorance and educate - and that is absolutely what Adam Goodes and others are advocating.
Most of the media has been mature through this entire situation. They have not vilified the girl and have focused on Adam Goodes' feelings and his compassion. This is a beautiful opportunity for education for the girl, all school kids and for the wider public. I am glad my friend asked the question he did; I think more people who do not understand the inappropriateness of the girl's comment should ask 'why' and instead of dismissing the answers, just listen. Most importantly, they should listen to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people themselves.
Dr Noah Riseman is a Senior Lecturer in History at the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne, specialising in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history. View his full profile here.